It’s all about cow comfort and space,” according to David Clarke of Cows.ie, speaking about a new cubicle shed recently completed on his farm at Loughnavalley, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. The design is somewhat unorthodox, with a steel portal frame structure preferred to provide accommodation for 102 cows.

The farm itself in not your ordinary run-of-the-mill dairy setup, with livestock sourcing the main enterprise run on the farm. The business offers a raft of livestock sourcing services, with heifers and freshly calved cows for UK farms one of the main markets. However, the business is also involved in bringing cattle to and from the continent.

This system does present challenges, which saw a new milking parlour and cubicle accommodation installed on the farm over the past few years. However, this additional cubicle shed was seen as key in terms of driving the business on in the future.

“What we are doing is probably different to what anybody else is doing. We have a transient herd of cows but while they are here we want to ensure they perform well and I would see feed space, cubicle comfort and passageway width as vital for performance,” David explains.

“We need to have facilities that let us handle a lot of cattle efficiently.”

Pictures one and two and Figure one

Airflow through the shed was seen as a key requirement of the design. The shed stands at 6.9m to the eaves from the floor.

However, the development is constructed into a sloping yard, which puts the actual height from the raised concrete apron to the eaves at 4.8m. As the prevailing wind will not hit this side of the shed, the decision was made to leave it fully open to encourage as much air movement as possible. “There was no real disadvantage going that bit higher with the shed. It gives us more air and more light,” said David.

Spaced sheeting is in place throughout the entire roof of the shed to provide outlet ventilation. The shed adjoins an existing cubicle shed that has ample slurry storage capacity, so the new shed only required one tank running down along the near side, as seen in picture one. This helps to reduce the costs associated with the development.

A flow channel is in place between the tanks of the two sheds

Picture three

There is ample feed space for the shed, with feeding on three sides. Two sides of the shed are fitted with Easyfix evolve feed barriers, while the other is fitted with a convention diagonal feed barrier supplied by Teemore Engineering. The shed itself is 29.1m long and 25.1m wide, with total feed space of approximately 69m. Stocked at full capacity, it would mean a space of 680mm/cow. As herd sizes increase and farmers try to fit as many cubicles as possible under the roof of a new development, it is often feed space and passageway width that will be compromised.

This will have knock-on effects when it comes to yield, lameness and therefore cow longevity within the herd. While the shed was constructed without the help of grant aid, it was still constructed to the Department specifications. Agitation points were installed without any roof over them.

This has a knock-on effect, not only when it comes to safety but also in terms of farm insurance, according to David.

“Agitation points outside of the shed help to keep insurance costs down, if you have an assessor out on the farm, it is not something that farmers will always take into consideration.”

Pictures four to six

The shed is laid out in three rows of head-to-head cubicles, fitted with 50mm thick rubber mattresses. Mattresses are 1.83m long with a lunge zone of 1.25m between them. There are 34 cubicles in each double row.

Passages running down between the cubicles are 2.85m wide, while the passageways along either side of the shed increase to 5.4m wide (picture five). The slatted passageway running along the feed barrier is 5m wide (picture four).

Crossover points are 3.65m wide (picture six) and are fitted with water troughs. Water troughs can also be fitted along the slatted passageway. Teemore guillotine gates are fitted at the end of rows of cubicles to facilitate the internal division of the shed. Two DeLaval brushes are also fitted at crossover points.

“We could have got a few extra cubicles in the shed but we didn’t want to compromise cow flow and movement. We have the shed designed so that we can split it into at least three sections comfortably and cows would still have ample feed space,” said David.

Picture seven

All passageways within the shed have been grooved to provide additional grip for cows. This was done by pulling a mould across the top of the concrete as it was setting. Alfco rope scrapers are fitted along the four passageways going across the shed and scrape into the large slatted tank. These are driven by two motors.

“We went for the rope scrapers. I feel they are nicer on cow’s feet than the hydraulic scrapers, where there is a bar running along the floor of the passageway,” explained David.

Grooved concrete slats were supplied by Wright Quarry Products.

Picture eight

The shed has been left in such a way that it can be expanded on in the future with precast concrete panels fitted along the entire side of the shed.

Above this, spaced boarding is fitted along the side of the shed for inlet ventilation.

The total cost of the development came to approximately €220,000 excluding VAT. “This shed facilitates what we are trying to do on this farm. We are trying to upgrade the farm as we go along,” David said. Aidan Kelly of Agri-Design and Planning completed the plans for the shed.

The shed was supplied and fitted by John McDermott of McDermott Structural Steel. Going down the steel portal frame route is generally slightly more expensive than going with a simple steel frame. According to David, the additional cost of going with a portal frame was approximately €8,000 above the simple steel structure.

However, the real advantage is when it comes to the internal layout as there are no stanchions to dictate how the shed should be laid out.

The layout does not lend itself to slatted sheds where barriers and penning is usually bolted to stanchions, but it can work well for cubicle sheds. High bay LED lights were fitted throughout the shed. Dowdall Plant Hire and McBride Shuttering completed the ground work and concrete work for the project.